Friday, January 13, 2017

Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Clifton-Taylor’s English towns: Down by the riverside

Next in my short series of posts on Alec Clifton-Taylor’s 1970s television programmes on English towns see the presenter not far from my backyard, exploring the town of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, as Vauxhall Vivas and Rover 2000s zoom about in the background. Tewkesbury is a waterside town by two rivers (the Severn and Avon) built around a huge medieval abbey. I’ve posted about Tewkesbury several times before, noting its vulnerability to flooding, its noble abbey, its historic houses, and its very special Baptist chapel. My photograph shows the west front of the abbey, its enormous Norman arch now filled by a late-medieval window. Clifton-Taylor ranges outwards from this huge stone pile to the town’s mainly timber-framed buildings, up its characteristic alleys, and along its bounding rivers. There are interesting diversions on brick production and glass-making on the way, too.

Tewkesbury is a busy local centre, and much appreciated locally, but many tourists miss it, because they are distracted by the Cotswolds ten or twenty miles away. It’s well worth the diversion, as Clifton-Taylor fascinatingly shows.

1 comment:

There's no need to convert me into a fan of Tewkesbury! In a half-timbered secondhand bookshop I acquired a key Irish text as well as several P G Wodehouses. Much of the immediate local area here in Pontypridd was owned by the Abbey, a bit of cattle-raising mountain given away when the Norman Advenae lords stole somebody else's country, and kept the corn land. Ewenny Priory near Bridgend has Romanesque columns so much like the ones at Tewkesbury (and Gloucester) that I suspect the same builders.

Curiously, by the time the improver of Ewenny, by the name of De Londres, died, the massive Romanesque was already old hat: his tombstone at Ewenny is decorated in a delicate flowing Early Gothic style.

As with Battle in Sussex, it seems to me that the different frontages in the main streets (Y-shaped) still occupy the same width as when the town of Tewkesbury was laid out: the buildings have been changed, but not the boundaries between them. This might warrant further investigation, and some measuring?

AMARA INTERIOR BLOG AWARD

About Me

I'm the author of The English Buildings Book, England's Abbeys, Restoration, the book of Adam Hart-Davis's series What the Romans Did For Us, other books about architecture and buildings, and various books on other subjects, including Dorling Kindersley's handbooks on Mythology (written with Neil Philip) and Religions. IN THIS BLOG I share my encounters with some of my favourite English buildings, including many that are little known and that get short shrift in the architectural history books. Look here for accounts of breweries, prefabs, power stations, corrugated-iron barns and the occasional parish church as I share my meetings with England's remarkable buildings. IN THIS COLUMN, JUST BELOW HERE, are links to more information about me, my books, and the courses and talks I give. A LITTLE FURTHER DOWN are some links to a series of short articles that make up a very brief history of English architecture.

MORE ABOUT PHILIP WILKINSON

ABOUT ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE

The English Buildings Book

Published by English Heritage, The English Buildings Book, by Philip Wilkinson and Peter Ashley, covers everything from parish churches to castles, town halls to market halls, barns to bars. Now out in paperback.

Great Buildings

Also written by Philip Wilkinson, Great Buildings is a spectacular overview of fifty of the world's architectural masterpieces – each one a shining example of its type or style – that gives readers the chance to 'get under the bricks and mortar'. Each building is shown in numerous pictures, to create the impression of a series of guided tours.

GREAT DESIGNS

One more of my books. A survey of the history of design through 100 objects, from the Swiss Army knife to the Citroen DS, the Thonet bentwood chair to the Anglepoise lamp, Great Designs showcases the work of such diverse designers as William Morris and Phillippe Starck.